Possibilities

The Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Baltic Sea that I showed you the other day has been through a lot. I wound up one skein, and then I started the Waving Lace Socks by Evelyn A. Clark, one of my favorite designers. I was really enjoying the pattern, but the pooling, not so much. So I set that aside, wound up the other skein. and cast on for Roza's Socks by Grumperina. Looking at some of the suggestions given to Alli, who was also having pooling problems, I decided to try knitting from both ends of the ball. Didn't like it. It was tangly, and I was getting grumpy, even though the colors were working better. So I tried knitting with only one of the ends for several rounds and I liked the result well enough--it seems that the different stitch count and pattern made enough of a difference. Since I wanted to knit both socks at the same time, I frogged the mismatched WIPs, unkinked the yarn, and cast on again the next day.



Roza's Socks are a lot of fun--I'll definitely have to incorporate more brioche in future knitting projects. This is the first time I've done two socks at once, and besides some very minor tangling, I'm enjoying it very much. It's nice to not have to bother counting rounds, or worry about my gauge changing like it often does on the second sock.

I know I said the Baltic Sea was for my sock pal's socks, but now I'm not so sure. I really liked the colors in the skein, and I still do when it's knitted up, but they aren't quite what I expected. I was hoping it would be more green, but overall it's rather grayish-brown. Since I'm not quite convinced that these are the "right" socks for my pal, I went and got more yarn last Wednesday, this time from Article Pract, rather than the usual Stash.


Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (what else?) in Denim.

I think my pal will probably like this color better, and I won't have to worry about pooling. Now I have to pick a pattern. Right now I'm looking at patterns in Favorite Socks, most likely either the Waving Lace Socks by Evelyn A. Clark or the Merino Lace Socks by Anne Woodbury (more blue lace!). What do you think? I'm open to other suggestions too, but the sooner, the better, since I'd like to cast on in the next few days. Once I have a bit knit up, I'll decide which pair is better suited to my pal, and which pair I'll keep for myself (not like I need more socks!).

And while we're on the topic of socks, here's a pair I recently finished.



Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A. I pretty much followed the pattern as written, except I only did five repeats on the leg, fewer rows on the heel flap, and did a slightly different toe (decrease as written to 32 stitches, work decrease round only until 16 stitches are left, graft).

Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in Copperbeach (Colorway 67), one skein. I really enjoyed working with this yarn--its tightly spun but very soft. However, I would love to see it come with more yardage. The second sock is slightly smaller and pooled differently--I must have knit it at a tighter gauge since I was worried about running out of yarn. I probably didn't need to worry though, because I did have some left over. But if you have longer feet than I do (US shoe size 6), you may want to make a shorter cuff / leg or buy a second skein.

Needles: Addi Turbo US 0 (2 mm), 40 inch circular (magic loop method). I had originally started these on Addi Natura US 1 (2.5 mm) needles, but decided that the socks would have been looser than I like for my narrow feet, and so I went to Stash and got the Addi Turbos. When I bought them I made sure to look at the tips and pick the most pointy looking ones, since Grumperina always calls them Blunti Stumpos. I can see why she does; some of them were unbelievably blunt, and looked like they had barely been sharpened (or whatever it is that they do to make needles pointy). But the pair I bought was fine, and I liked them surprisingly well considering that I usually prefer bamboo needles.

A few more pictures for you!